Social relationships, mental health and wellbeing in physical disability: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Research has consistently found that favourable exchange with one’s proximal social environment has positive effects on both mental health and wellbeing. Adults with physical disabilities may have fewer opportunities of favourable exchange, and therefore the effects on mental health and...

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Autores principales: Tough, Hannah, Siegrist, Johannes, Fekete, Christine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5422915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28482878
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4308-6
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author Tough, Hannah
Siegrist, Johannes
Fekete, Christine
author_facet Tough, Hannah
Siegrist, Johannes
Fekete, Christine
author_sort Tough, Hannah
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Research has consistently found that favourable exchange with one’s proximal social environment has positive effects on both mental health and wellbeing. Adults with physical disabilities may have fewer opportunities of favourable exchange, and therefore the effects on mental health and wellbeing may be less advantageous. The aim of this study is to systematically review quantitative studies exploring associations of social relationships with mental health and wellbeing in persons with physical disabilities. METHODS: The databases PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus were searched for relevant studies published between 1995 and 2016. Data was extracted on study and participants’ characteristics, independent and dependent variables, used measures and effects sizes of associations between social relationships and mental health or wellbeing. A narrative review was performed to synthesize findings along the constructs social support, social networks, negative social interactions, family functioning and relationship quality. RESULTS: Of the 63 included studies, 47 were cross-sectional and 16 longitudinal. Most studies included a measure of social support (n = 58), while other concepts were less often studied (social networks n = 6; negative social interaction n = 3; family functioning n = 2; relationship quality n = 1). Over half of studies included depression as outcome (n = 33), followed by wellbeing (n = 14), composite mental health measures (n = 10), anxiety (n = 8), psychological distress (n = 7), posttraumatic stress disorder (n = 3), and hopelessness (n = 1). Although trends for associations of social support with mental health and wellbeing were consistent, around a quarter of studies failed to report significant associations. Social networks were related to depression, but not to other mental health or wellbeing measures. Family functioning, negative social interactions and relationship quality showed consistent associations with mental health and wellbeing, however, only few studies were available. CONCLUSIONS: This review indicates that social relationships play an important role in mental health and wellbeing in persons with disabilities, although findings are less consistent than in general populations and strength of associations vary between constructs. Integrating persons with disabilities into social networks seems not sufficient and rehabilitation professionals together with affected persons and their peers should ensure that high quality relationships and tailored support are available.
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spelling pubmed-54229152017-05-12 Social relationships, mental health and wellbeing in physical disability: a systematic review Tough, Hannah Siegrist, Johannes Fekete, Christine BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Research has consistently found that favourable exchange with one’s proximal social environment has positive effects on both mental health and wellbeing. Adults with physical disabilities may have fewer opportunities of favourable exchange, and therefore the effects on mental health and wellbeing may be less advantageous. The aim of this study is to systematically review quantitative studies exploring associations of social relationships with mental health and wellbeing in persons with physical disabilities. METHODS: The databases PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus were searched for relevant studies published between 1995 and 2016. Data was extracted on study and participants’ characteristics, independent and dependent variables, used measures and effects sizes of associations between social relationships and mental health or wellbeing. A narrative review was performed to synthesize findings along the constructs social support, social networks, negative social interactions, family functioning and relationship quality. RESULTS: Of the 63 included studies, 47 were cross-sectional and 16 longitudinal. Most studies included a measure of social support (n = 58), while other concepts were less often studied (social networks n = 6; negative social interaction n = 3; family functioning n = 2; relationship quality n = 1). Over half of studies included depression as outcome (n = 33), followed by wellbeing (n = 14), composite mental health measures (n = 10), anxiety (n = 8), psychological distress (n = 7), posttraumatic stress disorder (n = 3), and hopelessness (n = 1). Although trends for associations of social support with mental health and wellbeing were consistent, around a quarter of studies failed to report significant associations. Social networks were related to depression, but not to other mental health or wellbeing measures. Family functioning, negative social interactions and relationship quality showed consistent associations with mental health and wellbeing, however, only few studies were available. CONCLUSIONS: This review indicates that social relationships play an important role in mental health and wellbeing in persons with disabilities, although findings are less consistent than in general populations and strength of associations vary between constructs. Integrating persons with disabilities into social networks seems not sufficient and rehabilitation professionals together with affected persons and their peers should ensure that high quality relationships and tailored support are available. BioMed Central 2017-05-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5422915/ /pubmed/28482878 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4308-6 Text en © The Author(s). 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Tough, Hannah
Siegrist, Johannes
Fekete, Christine
Social relationships, mental health and wellbeing in physical disability: a systematic review
title Social relationships, mental health and wellbeing in physical disability: a systematic review
title_full Social relationships, mental health and wellbeing in physical disability: a systematic review
title_fullStr Social relationships, mental health and wellbeing in physical disability: a systematic review
title_full_unstemmed Social relationships, mental health and wellbeing in physical disability: a systematic review
title_short Social relationships, mental health and wellbeing in physical disability: a systematic review
title_sort social relationships, mental health and wellbeing in physical disability: a systematic review
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5422915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28482878
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4308-6
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